


Shatter Me

by GemNika



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Ballet, CoLu Week 2015, F/M, Glitter, Non-Graphic Smut, Post-Tartaros Arc (Fairy Tail), Songfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 13:05:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,579
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16429931
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GemNika/pseuds/GemNika
Summary: Lucy's finally found a way to move past the pain of the Infinity Clock. How does Cobra feel about seeing her pain so openly on display?





	Shatter Me

"Tell me why we're here again?"

Jellal brought up a hand to slowly swipe over his face in frustration. "You can read minds, and you  _still_ keep asking the same question…" he grumbled to himself. A low growl sounded from across the table and he looked up just in time to see Midnight place an arm in front of Cobra to hold him back from lunging at him. By some miracle, these two members of the Oracion Seis had been legally released from prison, while the others stayed locked up. The fact that he'd been able to get them to join him in the first place after what had transpired at the Tower of Heaven was still surprising to him, but Jellal wasn't going to be picky when it came to trying to take down Zeref's cults. He and Meredy needed all the help they could get, and if Cobra and Midnight were willing, then he was going to accept their assistance. Oddly enough, Midnight had been a saving grace in the strangest of packages when it came time to deal with Cobra. It seemed that, even though the Poison Slayer had agreed to go along with Midnight, he still didn't trust Jellal in the slightest, and the Reflector mage had known him long enough to know when he was about to start poisoning people.

"I know that  _you_  know it's Soul Listening magic, you tattooed fucksicle," Cobra sneered. "The day you stop saying I can 'read minds' is that day I stop asking you shit to piss you the hell off."

"Cobra," Jellal sighed. "I've already told you. We're here because we were invited."

"And you're hoping to sneak off when no one's looking to go and fuck Titania up in her office like the last time you were here," Cobra said, a cruel smirk playing across his lips when Jellal's eyes widened. "See? Heard that in your  _soul_. You weren't  _thinking_  about it. That's why  _you_  were invited. You could have very easily just come here on your own."

"You should keep things like that to yourself, you insufferable—"

"Yeah yeah. Go wash that tramp stamp off your face, and maybe I'll take you seriously."

"I'd watch—"

"Yeah," Cobra chuckled darkly as he leaned forward slightly, his indigo eye sparking dangerously as his gaze bored into the blunette's deep brown glare. "You probably  _should_ watch your mouth, Slave Driver. Spin it any way you fucking want to, but the fact of the matter is,  _we're_ here…" He paused and gestured to himself and Midnight, whose eyes had closed again. "Because you don't fucking trust us. You want me to start trusting you, then maybe you should stop pretending I don't already know what's really going on in that fucked up pile of shit you call a brain."

"Why you—"

"Jellal! What are you guys doin' here?!" Natsu shouted as he plopped down in the only seat that sat between the two sneering mages, seemingly oblivious to the danger he'd put himself in. "Did Gramps invite you guys to watch the show? It's talent night, y'know!"

"Actually, yes," Jellal said, sighing in relief that the pink-haired Slayer had diverted the attention to himself before a fight broke out.

"Salamander, we've been here for the past two fucking hours," Cobra sighed, nodding to Kinana when she dropped off another round of drinks at their table. "Pretty sure we got the memo, you retarded shit—OW! Kinana, what the hell?!"

"Be nice, Erik," Kinana said sweetly, patting the spot on the top of Cobra's head that she's smacked with her tray.

"Yeah,  _Erik_ ," Happy snickered, missing the wide-eyed looks both Midnight and Jellal gave him, along with how fervently they were shaking their heads to tell him to shut up. "Listen to your  _giirrrrrrllfriend._ "

"I won't hesitate to poison your goddamn catnip you mangy little shit!" Cobra shouted, snarling when three pairs of arms held him back while the small blue Exceed flew away, cackling wildly as he went. "Salamander, control that wannabe Smurf before I drop his ass off at a Chinese food place."

"Hey, leave Happy outta this!" Natsu said indignantly. "He didn't do anything wrong!"

"He did," Midnight said slowly as he sat back down in his seat, pulling a fuming Cobra down with him. "No one calls him that without his permission. Not even us."

"Huh?"

"Don't fuckin' worry about it, Salamander," Cobra growled. "You wouldn't get it even if I gave you a damn picture book."

"Aw, come on! That's not—"

"And now!" Mira's voice boomed across the guild, effectively silencing everyone at once. "The final act of the night—"

"Thank  _god_ ," Cobra groaned. "Then we can fucking  _leave_."

"—Lucy Heartfilia and Wendy Marvell!" While the crowd hooted and hollered, Mira quickly ran off of the stage, then nodded for Warren to turn down the lights while Elfman slowly opened the theatrical curtain they had installed specifically for Lucy and Wendy's performance.

A small spotlight was shining down on Wendy while she knelt on the floor. There was a pink bonnet on her head with a blue flower pinned on one side. Her azure hair flowed freely and cascaded down over the light pink leotard she was wearing, and a fluffy pink tulle skirt fanned out around her on the ground. She kept her head down as she slowly stood to her feet, bringing a large replica of a key up to stand next to her. The jagged design gave her only a few places to put her hands, but she managed to get a firm grip on it as she walked further away from the crowd.

Wendy took the object and pushed it into the side of an otherwise unlit surface, then turned it slowly. The ratcheting sound of a wind-up toy filtered through the air with each subsequent turn, and an eerie blue glow started travelling down the key, lighting up ancient runes along the way. A music box let out its odd tinkling tune while two more spotlights lit up the much larger object that Wendy had activated.

Everyone's eyes were drawn up the strange mechanical structure, gears and cogs slowly turning in place all along the base of it, only to see a silhouetted figure with her arms held above her by what they could only assume were strings attached to her wrists, her body suspended several feet in the air above of the platform. A large, infinitely spiraling clock face appeared just behind the woman that they knew was Lucy, coated in a fogged sort of glass that bathed the stage in a strange orange glow while the numbers on the clock cast odd shadows all across the stage and crowd.

_I pirouette in the dark  
I see the stars through a mirror_

As Lucy's silhouette lifted one leg into the air, her ballet slipper covered toes pressing against the inside of her other knee, she began to slowly spin in place. Wendy made her way in spin after graceful spin from one side of the stage to the other as the single violin played the small lyrical interlude, small motes of light appearing in the air behind her and looking for all they were worth just like she was being followed by stars.

_Tired mechanical heart  
Beats 'til the song disappears_

The glowing from the clock face started to pulse in time with the music, fading until it was hardly giving off any light. Cobra's eye narrowed as he listened to the song. He took in the scene again and again, wondering just why it all looked so familiar to him, and an uneasy feeling settled itself in his stomach when the spotlight started increasing in its intensity on Lucy as the tension in the music grew.

_Somebody shine a light  
I'm frozen by the fear in me_

Lucy's head slowly lifted as she looked out into the crowd once the spotlight started fully shining down on her. Each syllable that passed her lips was filled with her emotions, everything she had felt and still did even a year after that horrible day. She felt the fear welling up inside of her, just as it had the last time she was pressed against the face of a clock. She saw the shocked faces of everyone in the audience when they realized that she was the one singing instead of just a track playing in the background, but her usual stage fright had no room to make her lock up when she saw two faces she hadn't expected to see that night.

_Somebody make me feel alive  
And shatter me_

Wendy's arms flung open wide, her head flying back as she took a protective stance in front of the clock. The crowd gasped as a large crack etched itself down the center of the glass over the clock face, and the hands started to turn.

_So cut me from the line  
Dizzy, spinning endlessly_

The hands on the clock turned sharply and snapped the bindings around Lucy's wrists, dropping her down to land on perfectly pointed toes without a sound. She began quickly spinning away from where she'd been bound to the edge of the platform she was on, and Cobra's stomach lurched when he realized why it had all looked so familiar to him. Lucy's thoughts and roiling emotions only set that inkling he had firmly in place. Her being bound in the air, a girl in a pink dress, the key to start the clock, and the fact that those numbers that counted the time were spinning infinitely toward the center. It was a reenactment of what happened that day they had stupidly tried to sacrifice the Celestial mage so they could destroy everything.

_Somebody make me feel alive  
And shatter me_

Lucy's hands pressed up against a large clear glass that closed her off from jumping down from the platform, searching frantically for a way to break through it. Her eyes clenched shut as she belted the lyrics, and finally pounded both of her fists against the glass. A fissure appeared in the glass, and she was thrown backwards into the face of the clock again as the violin solo began.

Cobra couldn't tear his gaze away from the sight of Lucy's blonde hair fanning out around her as she moved so effortlessly around the glass prison she was kept in. Her silvery grey leotard and skirt only made her skin seem to glow, giving her an eerily ethereal quality while she danced. Both she and Wendy were in perfect unison, the young Slayer moving from one end of the stage to the other while Lucy copied her every move from where she was being held in the much smaller space. Spins, twirls, graceful arches of their backs one way or the other, even going up to stand on the very tips of their toes while they spun in place. The only difference in their movement was that Lucy would slam herself against the glass while Wendy continued to dance so freely across the stage. And every time it happened, a look of utter devastation would etch itself onto Lucy's face as she helplessly watched the freedom Wendy was given.

_Shatter me!_   
_Somebody make me feel alive_   
_And shatter me_

"We're a couple of assholes," Midnight whispered, knowing Cobra would hear him even if he hadn't spoken out loud. When Cobra simply nodded while his jaw tensed, Midnight sighed and shook his head as he looked back at the stage. Even if he had wanted to, he couldn't possibly find it in himself to fall asleep while Lucy was performing; not because of how loudly she was singing, but because they had somehow gained her forgiveness for what they had done to her in the past. "Seriously… I still don't know how she doesn't hate us for that."

"Luce doesn't hate anyone," Natsu whispered with a proud smile on his face. "You guys are her friends now, and that's all that matters."

Cobra sneered and rolled his eye at the naïve Slayer's words. That just wasn't how shit worked. A person didn't just forgive and forget, and this little performance of Lucy's only seemed to prove him right. He could hear her pain—both what she'd experienced that day, and what those memories made her feel right then—her suffering, and her unending sadness. He didn't understand how she could possibly have befriended both himself and Midnight if this was how much they had truly hurt her before. Sure, he had heard for himself that she didn't hold what happened in the past against them since they had turned their lives around, but Midnight was right. They were assholes, and she had every right to hate them for trying to erase her from existence.

_If only the clockwork could speak  
I wouldn't be so alone_

Lucy paused in front of the glass again, pressing her forehead against it while she slowly reached to the backlit silhouette of her father off to her right. They hadn't necessarily been on great terms before she disappeared, but she wanted to be. She'd never gotten the chance to tell him that she forgave him, that she still wanted to be a part of his life. The silhouette reached for her hand, and a wide and hopeful smile stretched across her face. She wanted so badly just to feel his hand holding hers one more time. It was because of her father that she had been given the Clock hand in the first place, because he'd wanted her to protect it. He had placed his faith in her before he died, and Lucy never got the chance to thank him for believing in her.

_We'd burn every magnet and spring  
And spiral into the unknown_

The silhouette faded just before Lucy's hand could touch it, and she crumpled to the ground and held her head in her hands. The numbers on the clock started spinning in the opposite direction of the hands as they continued counting down toward what would be Lucy's doom. Cobra's eye went wide when he actually smelled her tears from where he was sitting, her soul wailing in tandem with her silent cries over her past. Midnight had been the one that spearheaded that whole plan, and Cobra had just gone along with it because he couldn't handle the pain of not having Cubellios anymore. He had searched so desperately for her once they'd broken out of prison, but he never found his only friend. Because he'd been wallowing in his own misery, he never even heard the agonized cries of Lucy's soul that day. He heard them now though, loud and fucking clear. He didn't want to remember just how much they had hurt someone he'd come to realize was a good and sweet person, but there was no way for him to even try to move. He was glued to his seat, just as his eye was glued to Lucy. They owed her a lot for being able to forgive them for that day, so he was just going to suck it up and listen to her.

_Somebody shine a light  
I'm frozen by the fear in me_

Wendy dashed up a set of hidden stairs off to the side of the large platform, kneeling down in front of Lucy and pressing her hands to the cracked glass. She smiled encouragingly when Lucy's teary eyes looked up at her, feeling a little more at ease when the blonde smiled right back and stayed in character the way they'd practiced. At Lucy's almost imperceptible nod, Wendy stood to her feet and created a small whirlwind of air around herself, kicking up the pile of black and green glitter that had been placed there for her 'transformation'.

_Somebody make me feel alive  
And shatter me_

When the miniature storm settled, everyone gasped as Wendy was revealed again, wearing an outfit that was nearly identical to the one Imitatia had worn—from the strange leaf top to the skirt, the forest green gloves, and even down to the rose that covered her right eye with the thorny band wrapping around her head. Lucy felt the betrayal all over again, seeing in her mind's eye the girl she'd thought was her last living relative becoming a monster right before her eyes.

_So cut me from the line  
Dizzy, spinning endlessly_

The hands of the clock started spinning faster and faster, the gears underneath groaning as time essentially rushed past. Cobra's teeth ground together while he listened to Lucy's soul as she continued singing. Even while she was belting out the notes of the song with more power and emotion than he thought her petite body could have managed, it was her soul that called for his attention. The appearance of Imitatia had caused a dissonant wail to start swirling inside of the blonde. Betrayal, anger, sadness, desperation and loneliness clashed within her, each of them battling wildly to try and come out victorious while forcing Lucy herself into a fetid pit of anguish. He could see those emotions clear as day in his own mind, and when he tried to focus on tuning her out as it became too much for him to bear, they only got louder. It seemed like her soul was desperate to be heard, just for someone to acknowledge it and see her pain for what it was instead of pushing her by the wayside.

_Somebody make me feel alive_   
_And shatter me_

Wendy grinned and ran back down the stairs as Lucy started pounding on the glass again, sending invisible gusts of wind at the glass here and there to start creating larger and larger cracks all across its surface. Lucy continued banging on the glass, then started clawing violently at the fissures in the hopes of breaking through. Silhouette after silhouette passed over the glass of every member of Fairy Tail that had been fighting to free her that day. Each time a new one faded, a fissure would appear where they had been. Their presence, their grit and determination to save Lucy—to save the world—had weakened Midnight and his gang's control over the clock, and had given Lucy the will to fight back when she had wanted nothing more than to give up.

_If I break the glass then I'll have to fly_   
_There's no one to catch me if I take a dive_   
_I'm scared of change and the days stay the same_   
_The world is spinning but only in gray_

Lucy took several steps back until she was leaning against the clock's face. Cobra barely heard Midnight and Natsu gasp when Lucy's little twin spirits appeared in the form of Michelle—the innocent form Imitatia had assumed to gain Lucy's trust and lead her to the Infinity Clock in the first place. Their hands clasped tightly, their fingers laced together, and they started running forward straight at the glass that was holding Lucy prisoner. It shattered out towards the crowd, causing everyone in the room to gasp as one when Lucy leapt so effortlessly through the air. Michelle disappeared and Lucy's head tilted back while she flew through the air, her arms spread wide open as though they were wings and her legs parted in a split with only one ballet-slippered foot pointing towards the audience.

Even though the glass obscured a portion of the blonde, Cobra was still able to see those two small spirits whirling around her faster and faster as they unraveled the silver outfit she was wearing. His breath stalled in his throat as it constricted when she landed on the toes of one foot, her other leg pulled into an unnatural—but no less beautiful—arch behind her, and her arms slowly lowered as though she was a bird that had just landed after only a short flight. The shards of glass glinted in the light as they floated down through the air, fading into harmless specks of glittering dust once they reached the ground. Gone was that ethereal leotard with its matching skirt, and in its place was a tattered black corset—complete with rips and tears in the fabric that exposed her cream-colored skin—and a blood red skirt that hung limply down to her mid-thigh in thin strips of a sheer, tulle-like material.

_If I break the glass then I'll have to fly_   
_There's no one to catch me if I take a dive_   
_I'm scared of change and the days stay the same_   
_The world is spinning but only in gray_

Wendy grabbed Lucy's hand and wrenched her away from the center of the stage, dragging her to one side before they separated. She and Lucy spun towards each other before engaging in an articulately choreographed dance to make it seem as though they were fighting one another. Every time Lucy jumped into a split in a feigned kick towards her, Wendy would pirouette out of the way. If Wendy tenderly latched onto Lucy's hands with her own, the blonde would pull herself away as quickly as possible, stumbling backwards before rushing on into another attack.

Even through it all, through all of the pain and suffering the Reborn Oracion Seis had wrought upon the woman, her head was still held high. Cobra could see and smell her tears from where he was sitting, and he could hear just how intensely her soul had begun sobbing. What caught him off guard though—which was definitely something that piqued his interest because it was becoming far too frequent for his liking where Lucy was concerned—was the single thought that was actively running through her mind when her eyes locked onto his for the briefest of moments. While she was singing about being scared of change, Lucy was also internally thanking Cobra and those that had hurt her so much for giving her the ability to shatter the glass that had kept her locked up as a prisoner of her past. She felt as though she'd been caged, shackled with those memories of her own childhood that still haunted her, and the psycho somehow saw the horrible shit they had forced on her as a  _good_  thing.

Lucy and Wendy twirled towards one another on their toes, their hands finally locking together while they looked into each other's eyes. Lucy smiled softly and brushed a hand over Wendy's cheek just under the rose covering her eye, then they started dancing as one. Wendy spun in tight circles under Lucy's arm, and they began a strange form of a waltz while keeping their feet pointed, circling around the stage in a wide birth that only amplified the sense of freedom Lucy felt. This performance had been her idea as a way to move past what had happened that day, to finally find a way to live on with the knowledge that her father truly loved her in the end—even if she had been too late to hear it from him directly. It was cathartic for her, and an immense weight lifted itself from her shoulders as she let the music fill her.

Another crack appeared in the clock face, running diagonally from the top right section down to the bottom left, and that orange glow that had been giving off only ambient light started to increase through each crack. They started to spider-web outward, but Lucy only danced with Wendy down on the stage, seemingly oblivious to what was happening just above their heads.

_Somebody shine a light_   
_I'm frozen by the fear in me_   
_Somebody make me feel alive_   
_And shatter me_

Lucy winked at Wendy, and the young Slayer smiled brightly while they stood facing one another. She sent out another gust of controlled wind, causing a whirlwind of silver and white glitter that had previously been the glass keeping Lucy locked on the platform to shoot up into the air, engulfing the pair of them. Once they were obscured from view, Wendy rushed back towards the clock and backstage.

_So cut me from the line_   
_Dizzy, spinning endlessly_

Lucy gathered her magic and sent it out in a strong burst from herself, causing the glitter that Wendy was still controlling to fly out into the crowd as another crack appeared in the clock. She held her Michelle doll at arm's length and continued dancing with a smile on her face, spinning and swaying as though she was a small child again that was simply playing with her favorite doll. So many happy memories surrounded her time with this Michelle—times of having little tea parties in the gardens with her mother, when things were perfect in her young mind—that she couldn't help but smile down at the little cloth face.

_Shatter me!_   
_Somebody make me feel alive_   
_And shatter me_

Cobra took a shaky breath while Lucy danced with that little doll in the pink dress, completely astounded by what he was hearing. Her singing had faded into the background for him, and all he could focus on was what was happening with her soul. It was  _soaring_. Freedom, contentment, overwhelming happiness, and above all else… fucking  _gratitude_  swelled inside of Lucy, forcing him to relive her memories right along with her. To hear and actually feel what she was experiencing while she looked back on the events of that day. To say he was surprised that his face even popped up in her memory was an understatement, but there he fucking was. Standing next to Angel and Midnight just before they had been sent off to take out the Fairies that were trying to thwart their plans. He hadn't paid any attention to her whatsoever, thinking she was far beneath him and that her pain was a joyous thing to bring about back then. Even though he would have reveled in her anguish, he'd ignored it completely.

Cobra was able to see just how cruel he'd been from someone else's perspective, and for the first time in his life… He hated it. He watched from her mind's eye, seeing every single detail of what she'd endured since she had returned from Tenrou Island—her father dying before she could mend their relationship, finding a connection with Michelle only for it to be torn away from her once Imitatia appeared, being absorbed by the Clock. He felt her will to fight, even though such a large part of her wanted to just let them win so she wouldn't have to feel the pain of her loss any longer. She had suffered more than they had known—more than they had really cared at the time—but the loneliness that had nestled itself in her soul was a melody he knew well. Even a year after having found that Kinana was Cubellios, Cobra still felt that familiar melody within himself.

Even though such painful memories were swirling in her, Lucy was  _happy_. She was glad that she had those memories; that Cobra, Midnight, and the others had kidnapped her and tried to sacrifice her. The crazed blonde on the stage felt that she had become who she was now because of what they had forced on her. She was a better person, stronger now than she could have ever imagined,  _because of them_. He couldn't even begin to fathom just how she was able to feel something like that, and while the lyrics of the song played through her mind over and over, he felt something within his own hardened soul shatter as well.

_Shatter me!  
Somebody make me feel alive_

Unbeknownst to Cobra, Jellal had found a way to tear his gaze from the enthralling performance to throw in a jab at the Slayer about his own past fuckups, but that had died in his throat when he saw how intently Cobra was watching Lucy as she danced with the little doll. Cobra's jaw had gone slack, a slight tremble rolling across not just his lips (which was surprising in and of itself), but over his entire body. Of course Jellal knew that Cobra was most likely listening in on Lucy's soul, since he had a tendency to do that constantly—no matter how much he complained about hearing what was going on in everyone's heads or how loud it was. Clearly, whatever the monster his own past misdeeds had created was shocked by what he was hearing, and while it gave Jellal a smug sense of satisfaction to know that even Cobra could be affected by something, he'd never expected  _this_. From where he was sitting, Jellal had the perfect view of Cobra's good eye, which meant that he had a front row seat to the silent spectacle of tears rolling down the mage's cheek. With a furrowed brow, Jellal carefully nudged a teary-eyed and grinning Natsu, then gestured towards Cobra once he had the Slayer's attention.

Natsu raised a brow and turned to look at the Poison Slayer, his grin somehow widening when he saw what had Erza's longtime love so speechless and utterly confused. He quickly turned back to the blunette and put a finger to his lips then pointed back at the stage, signaling that they would talk once Lucy was done with her performance.

_And shatter me!_

The clock finally shattered. The cogs and gears came to a halt as the glass exploded violently, but instead of it raining down on top of the Celestial mage, it coalesced in a swirling mass above her. Lucy dropped to her knees while cradling Michelle in her arms in the center of the stage. Her head slowly bowed as the mass above her finally took shape in the form of the Fairy Tail emblem. The lights dimmed until there was only a single blue spotlight shining down on her, and Lucy slowly brushed a stray string of hair off to the side of Michelle's face when her mic finally cut off just when a stifled whimper escaped her lips. The spotlight finally faded along with the last notes of the song, the glittering emblem above slowing dissipating and showering the stage and the crying blonde with glitter, and Lucy took a shuddering breath while Wendy rushed back out onto the stage. The little blunette helped Lucy stand up, and she couldn't help but laugh when she was pulled into a surprisingly strong embrace by those slender arms.

Once the normal lighting of the guild returned, every person in the crowd shot to their feet while they cheered and applauded. Not many of the members of Fairy Tail knew just what Lucy herself had endured during that fiasco, but they all knew now. They had felt her strength and resolve increasing as the song had progressed, and most were drying the tears from their eyes right along with her. Jellal grinned and turned to speak with Natsu over the cheers of the crowd while Lucy and Wendy bowed, but the sight of a maroon head of hair disappearing into the crowd gave him pause.  _'What the hell is he up to?'_  he thought.

* * *

"Wendy, you were amazing!" Mira shouted gleefully, pulling the girl into a tight hug. She looked up at Lucy, her smile widening as she forced the teary-eyed blonde into the embrace. "You too, Lucy! That was magnificent!"

Lucy giggled and hugged both Wendy and Mira, then carefully pulled herself away. "Thanks, Mira. I couldn't have done it without Wendy and my spirits though. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have somehow managed to get glitter in my underwear, and that needs to be handled." She gave both of her friends a brilliant smile before walking off towards the back hallway that led to the makeshift dressing rooms for the night. She turned the final corner and froze when she came face to face—well, face to chest, really—with Cobra, barely stopping herself in time before she bumped into the grumpy Poison Slayer.

Once she looked up into his eyes, seeing nothing there aside from the same perplexingly bored scowl, Lucy felt a twinge of guilt for bringing up the past. It was over a year ago that the Reborn Oracion Seis had tried to sacrifice her, and while she had been using the performance as a way to move on from it, she was fully aware of the fact that it had also just rubbed the past right in their faces. Regardless of how angry Cobra seemed all the time, or how she and Midnight hardly ever spoke because he was always asleep when Crime Sorciere visited the guild, she still considered them her friends. As such, she never wanted to intentionally upset either of them, especially when they had both come so far in making up for their past transgressions.

Cobra rolled his eye when Lucy just continued staring at him like she'd been caught with her hand in the cookie jar. Honestly, there were times that he missed people instantly being afraid of him. At least it wasn't nearly as annoying as the whirlwind of guilt that consumed the little blonde. "Look, you can cut that guilty shit out right now," he growled, smirking when she jolted in surprise. "You've got every right to hate us for that shit." When Lucy frowned and opened her mouth, ready to dissuade his belief right away, he sighed and scratched the back of his head uncharacteristically. "I know. You forgave us anyway. Still… We're, umm… We're sorry. You never actually got an apology from us, so… there."

Lucy slowly blinked, her jaw dropping open in surprise. She took a moment to really look at Cobra, and found herself drawn to that single deep purple eye of his. It was a perfect contrast to his darker skin, and she somehow found herself mulling over whether his eye made his hair look darker, or if it was his hair that made his eye seemed more purple than blue. The longer she looked at him, the more intrigued she was. Especially when she saw evidence of recently shed tears on his cheek and in the slight glisten of his only working eye. She couldn't help but wonder just what could have possibly made him cry.

"I wasn't," Cobra whispered, looking away from her so she couldn't see just how right she was. After a moment, he chuckled and added, "And you should probably handle that glitter that's trying to take over your snatch… Otherwise, I'm gonna start calling you Tinkerbell."

Lucy snorted in a highly unlady-like manner, knowing her father would have been fuming if he'd heard it when she was still living in the Konzern. Either the noise itself or her train of thought brought Cobra's gaze shooting back to her, and she openly laughed while shaking her head at him. "Honestly, you just might  _have_  to start calling me that. I'm pretty sure it's too late for me…"

"Yeah, how so?" Cobra asked, cocking one eyebrow while he stared the strange blonde down.

"Because my lady bits have been conquered by glitter… I can feel it," Lucy laughed, shifting uncomfortably when a few hundred particularly persistent crafting horrors decided they needed to try and take residence between her butt cheeks. She knew Cobra heard what she was about to say by the humorous glint in his eye, but just for good measure she leaned in and whispered, "Pretty sure I'll be perpetually queefing little puffs of pixie dust."

Cobra let out a short bark of laughter, followed by more when Lucy returned to her original position and started laughing along with him. "I think your old man would've been fuming more if he heard you talking about glittery pussyfarts, Tinkerbell." He watched as she quite literally lit up from within while she started laughing harder, and he couldn't help but mirror that odd sort of happiness she was feeling. Once their laughter died down, he shifted from one foot to the other when he heard her wondering what he was doing back by the dressing rooms, then whispered, "I um… I heard everything while you were out there. It's why I came to talk to you… I wanted to—"

Lucy quickly put her fingers up to Cobra's lips to silence him, smiling when his eye went wide and he stared at her in shock. She slowly pulled her hand away, then held up one finger to tell him to wait. Deciding to just have some fun and see what happened, Lucy glanced around to see if a certain demon barmaid was anywhere around— hoping that her simple conversation with Cobra wouldn't be dissolved in a baby-fiend attack of epic proportions. The last thing she needed was Mira chasing after her with a turkey baster… like she had done when Erza and Jellal became a couple.

Cobra blanched at the mental picture Lucy's mind painted, thinking she had an overactive imagination… That is, until that memory of Mira chasing Erza popped up. "Baby Brain is out serving drinks with Kinana," he said with a shudder. "I'll be sure to keep turkey basters far the fuck out of her reach… That's… That's fucking creepy."

"Good idea." Lucy turned and narrowed her eyes at him, then smirked and looked down at her chest for a second. She brought one hand up and pulled her corset away from herself just enough to push her other hand between her breasts.

"What the fuck are you—" Cobra paused and gaped at the sheer size of the pile of glitter Lucy pulled from her cleavage. He knew her chest was huge, but… a whole handful of the shit was lodged in there?! Really?!

Lucy grinned and threw the glitter up into the air, laughing as it rained down on herself and Cobra. She took a deep breath, then said, "Thank you, Cobra. I already forgave you, but hearing an apology—no matter how awkward—really does mean a lot to me." She went to walk past him, but stopped when he lightly grabbed her wrist and turned to look at her questioningly.

"What's with the shower of your tit glitter?" Cobra asked.

Lucy giggled. "Just giving you some pixie dust, Peter Pan." She reached up and lightly flicked the pointed tip of one ear, grinning when Cobra growled and snapped his teeth at her hand half-heartedly. She quickly leaned in and pressed a short kiss to his cheek when his scarred eye was facing her, already knowing that she was technically in his blind spot. "Really though," she whispered as she pulled her wrist from his lax grip, "Thanks, Cobra."

Cobra stood rooted to the spot while Lucy began walking away. "Hey, Tinkerbell…" He heard her pause when she reached the door to the dressing room she was using, and slowly turned to see her smiling at him and blushing. "Call me Erik, alright?" he whispered with a smirk.

Lucy's blush deepened and she slowly turned the doorknob, her smile widening as she said, "Thanks, Erik. But… I think I'll stick with Peter Pan." She giggled when a light blush made itself visible on Cobra's cheeks, and slipped into the dressing room. As she closed and locked the door behind her, Lucy thought,  _'Wow, he's really cute when he's uncomfortable...'_

Cobra blinked for a moment, hearing just what Lucy had thought once the door was closed. The sound of someone clearing their throat had him narrowing his eye, and he turned around only to sneer when he saw Jellal leaning against the wall right around the corner. "The fuck do you want  _now_?"

Jellal smirked at the sight of a glitter-covered Cobra while they started walking back towards their table. "I was just wondering where you were running off to…"

"… And?"

Jellal rolled his eyes and came to a stop, silently thankful that Cobra stopped as well. "And just what the hell you heard that made you act that way." Before Cobra could deny anything, he added, "I've been here the whole time, Cobra."

Cobra growled and got ready to start smacking some sense into the blunette, and then he heard how Lucy's soul was humming happily while she thought about how much she'd enjoyed talking with him, along with a few underlying thoughts about how his cheek felt against her lips and her own speculations about how the  _rest_  of his skin felt. "I wanted to thank her, that's all. And I'm not telling you what I heard, because that's her own damn business."

"Yeah, something that  _you_  of all people was privy to," Jellal countered. "You're not exactly well known for using that knowledge altruistically."

"I'll give you that one, but it's nothing I could use against her even if I wanted to—which I don't." Cobra rolled his eye when he heard Jellal thinking of everything else he'd heard, then started to stalk away. Only to freeze in his tracks when his 'guild master' spoke again.

"You know why she called you Peter Pan, right?"

"Aside from her thinking about how my ears are pointed like his, and that Tinkerbell is the fairy in that story… No."

Jellal chuckled and walked up to Cobra, patting his shoulder as though they were the closest of friends. "Well, Tinkerbell is the one that gives Peter Pan the ability to fly… by using pixie dust." When Cobra simply stared at him, Jellal rolled his eyes and said, "Erza has known Lucy for a very long time, so I've come to know her as well through Erza. She loves books almost as much as she loves this guild, but… she also loves word games nearly as much as you do."

"Okay… And?"

Jellal face-palmed with a heavy sigh. "For someone who can read mi—I mean, who can  _hear souls_ ," he said slowly, "You're kind of a dumbass. If that wasn't her hinting at wanting to sleep with you, then I don't know what was…"

"How the fuck did you come to  _that_  conclusion?!"

"Tinkerbell uses her pixie dust to help Peter Pan fly," Jellal repeated slowly, watching and hoping Cobra would pick up what he was hinting at. Apparently the guy was listening in on Lucy instead, because there wasn't a lightbulb going off above his head when Jellal explicitly explained it in his mind. With a sigh, Jellal said, "Think about  _why_  you said you were going to call her Tinkerbell. That's all I'll say." With that, he walked off, grinning over the fact that Cobra had also missed the whisper of a thought he'd had concerning Tinkerbell actually being in love with Peter Pan. Suddenly, Erza's plan to bring those two together—and not telling him about it until after Cobra had left the table—made tons of sense. As it turns out, Lucy had told Erza a few months prior about her feelings for Cobra, and his beautiful redheaded girlfriend decided to help her friend find some happiness. As far as Jellal was concerned, Lucy would most likely be a good influence on Cobra.  _'Then again… she apparently has his same sense of humor…'_

Cobra stood in the hallway, thinking about what Jellal had said, then going over his conversation with Lucy. It took all of five seconds for him to make the connection.  _'Pixie dust, huh?'_  he thought with a smirk. He turned and made his way over to the door Lucy had disappeared behind, and quickly knocked. Not a moment later, the blushing blonde answered wearing only a robe.

"What's up, Peter Pan?" Lucy giggled. "Miss me already?"

"Figured you could help me get some flying done, Tinkerbell," he answered as his eye raked over her. No way in hell was he going to turn down a woman like Lucy. She was gorgeous—even he had noticed that, he wasn't blind—surprisingly funny, but most importantly… she forgave him for what had happened and wasn't intimidated by him in the slightest. That was something he'd never experienced before, but he found that where Lucy was concerned, he really fucking liked it.

Lucy grinned when she saw Cobra's gaze sweeping over her, then roughly grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him into the room with her. She slammed the door and pushed him up against it, slanting her mouth over his and moaning softly when he instantly responded.

Cobra groaned as his tongue pushed past her lips, his hands gliding down over the silk of her robe and cupping her ass while he pulled her flush against him. Once Lucy's hands tangled in his hair, he pushed her robe higher only to feel purely naked flesh in his palms. He wasn't really one for foreplay, and even if he had been, the room they were locked in wasn't the place for it, so Cobra slowly slid one hand between her legs and growled when he realized that she was actually totally bare aside from that slip of fabric. A guttural moan spilled from her plump lips while he nipped at them and pushed one digit into her. As he started slowly withdrawing from the tight channel, he chuckled as Lucy tore the robe from herself before moving to his own clothes. Her hand stole down the front of his pants, and when her dainty hand closed over his shaft, the only thing he could think was,  _'Looks like Peter Pan's gonna be flying real soon...'_

 

**Author's Note:**

> The song used in this story is "Shatter Me" by Halestorm (youtube.com/watch?v=49tpIMDy9BE)


End file.
